


Longing for Hope

by ChillMalDigga, InkHallucination



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: BAMF Tony Stark, Loki & Tony Stark Friendship, M/M, Not like in Endgame tho, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Possible Character Death, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Tony Stark & the Soul Stone - Freeform, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, avengers endgame au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-31 07:13:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18586372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChillMalDigga/pseuds/ChillMalDigga, https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkHallucination/pseuds/InkHallucination
Summary: A man who has nothing to loose, a mage lost to the war. A second chance that no one hoped for, but with a twist. This is not their time-line, but they got another chance. They will remember, one way or another, but they are not the only ones, and the time is ticking against them. Will they be able to get the peace they deserve without changing the future beyond their control?





	Longing for Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to this fic. It is the brain-child of me (ChillMalDigga) and InkHallucination. We had this idea even before Infinity War, but it was put on hold from both sides due to various reasons. But after seeing Endgame I am unhappy, unhappy with what happened and how it ended. For me (Chill) it felt like a punch to the guts. So I am reviving this fic with with the startoff of the end. I am not changing it anymore to fit better to Endgame, because this Prologue feels close enough to the last battle to keep it like it is. This is not a fic about how Endgame should have been, this a retell of the MCU of our very own. 
> 
> InkHallucination betaed this chapter back then when we started, and I thank her again to let me start it without her, because she still needs to see Endgame at this point.
> 
> And if this isn't clear enough, SPOILERS ARE VERY LIKELY, even tho this chapter was written even before Infinity War, it comes close enough to Endgame

**Prologue**

 

The city burned. Once tall buildings were downed into rumble, leaving nothing more than a warzone, a shadow of a place that was once full of live. The earth was torched by powerful blasts, nothing would grow there anytime soon. The smoke that leaked from the still burning piles laid over the battlefield like a blanket, a blanket that hid the gruesome sight that laid beneath it.  
There was only one victor in this war, and that man stepped over the dead bodies of brave warriors. The Mad Titan Thanos discarded the last body of one of the fools that had gathered whatever fight was left within them to defend this meaningless pile of dirt, the remains crushed and pitiful, no more than an empty carcass like the ones who came before him. Maybe he would have never bothered with that meager looking planet, with its weak little mortals, if it wasn’t for the fact that they were like ticks, leaching on what was his. It was all for naught now that he possessed the weapon he needed to rule over every world out there with a flick of his fingers.  
A triumphant smile crept on his lips. The power of the infinity gems pulsed through him, he was the only one  _ worthy _ to wield it, and he crushed any rebellion that came his way with ease. Two flies with one clap.

The wheezing and rattling of his enemies, the so-called Avengers and even the Guardians of the Galaxy with all their allies, still clinging to their pathetic lives were music in his ears. They would see their world burn before they died, they would see his first act as ruler over every being to the vast ends of space. Their power was not enough to stop the titan, and they paid for their attempt trying to stop him.

But victory makes arrogant. Thanos left those who didn’t die just yet for an even more painful death, he didn’t check if they wouldn’t try for another last attempt on him. These people were too broken to move and he couldn’t care less.  
The cracking of fire, the wails of pain, and the crashing down of rumble swallowed the faint sound of mechanic whirring and mumbled cursing. The once prone Iron Man armor was broken around its creator, the helmet long lost left his head vulnerable, part of the armor around his left arm ripped off up to his elbow, his chest-plates seriously crushed, but yet, Tony Stark was alive, breathing, and still able to fight.  
The fire burning in his eyes was smothered by the sight in front of him, after all this time, the nightmares he had been trying to prevent had become true. His comrades, teammates and friends… all crushed and broken, and all he had done was take a ‘nap’ after Thanos had flicked him out of the air into a building that crashed down on him.

He didn’t know what to feel, there was pain, pain of having lost everything that once made his world, sadness over the death of his closest friends and family. But most of all, he felt anger, searing burning hot anger at his failure, at Thanos and everything that had led them to his point. Tony wanted to scream in frustration, and yet some part of his mind, somehow undisturbed told him that he could still do something, that he could still use this in some way to his advantage. After all, Thanos didn’t know he was there, all he had to do was to risk it.  
There was nothing to lose anymore, was there? He had already lost them once within the span of hours, or was it day? He couldn’t remember, everything was blurring together. Peter’s words still echoed within him, they never stopped, they never would... He saw the soldiers that died in Afghanistan and Yinsen, he saw Strange telling him he was in the endgame and Peter’s begging.  
Wordlessly, his boots came alive, the rest of the ‘Bleeding Edge’ armor thinning out to the bare minimum to be able to go over Mach 5, the sound of the repulsors drowning out every thought, leaving just a single one in his mind: Rip it off!

 

Thanos, blinded with his triumph, and ready to snap his fingers once more to finally erase the rest of the plague, didn’t hear him, he couldn’t with Tony going faster then sound, the loud crack of breaking the sound barrier was covered by the rest of a building going down behind him.  
He reached out, his fingers going under the rim of the gauntlet as he ordered the suit to fly upwards, forcing the stunned Thanos to open his fingers when the power of the suit momentary overpowered his strength.  
And it came off, suddenly there was nothing holding the gauntlet in place and Tony toppled forwards, the stunning realization of his succeed making him miscalculate and sending him crashing into a pile of rubble. Groaning, he pushed himself out of it, he could feel something stabbing him, it went through him like the blade that Thanos had forced through him in that last skirmish on Titan. Again, he choked up blood, but this time he couldn’t care less. The mad titan was still frozen in surprise, and once Tony forced himself out of the rubble he saw he had enough distance to the titan to not worry about another neck breaking slap to the face.

“You cannot wield the gauntlet Stark. It is over.” Thanos growled deeply and Tony smiled, a dark expression that looked more like a grimace on his face. Yes, his time was over, he would die today anyway, if not from the gauntlet, or Thanos, from the injuries he had suffered. From small cuts to now broken ribs, internal bleeding from being stabbed, and now the fresh wounds. Tony Stark knew he would go down like the rest of his friends, but he would do it on his own accords.

“You should know by now that I don’t like to listen to commands. Or to threats. My word is always the last one.”

“And you are a fool to think the world turns around you. You are worse than the everlasting greed of your kind.” The titan bit out and Tony sent him the 1000 watt smile he learned to give reporters and teammates, hiding behind the mask of superiority. Tony gave the gauntlet a long glance, Power, Space, Reality, Soul, Time and Mind. 6 stones that looked like gems you could get on the marketplace or out of a kid’s cereal box, six stones that destroyed his world in a matter of minutes.

He closed his eyes and took as much of a breath as his ribs allowed him.

“You took my planet” Tony said calmly, the taste of blood on his tongue too familiar to care anymore.

“You took my friends”, the bodies of the Avengers littered around them mixed with the Guardians he learned to appreciate over the few hours he got to know them, their eyes seeming to bear onto him even after their death.

“You took my pride” The Iron Man armor was as good as destroyed. “And the worst, you took my family.” Pepper was gone too, she had wanted to help by reactivating the extremis inside her, and she had been killed early into the fight, the rage he had felt the cause for which he had ended up under a building in the first place. Peter was most likely with the other cooling bodies, the kid had snaked his place into Tony’s heart, he had listened and had always concerned for ‘Mr. Stark’ even when everyone else left him aside. The kid died TWICE and it broke Tony’s heart all over again that he couldn’t protect the spiderling. Rhodey, who had become like a brother a long time ago, being there even if they fought like a married couple, looking out for him even when they couldn’t agree with each other, had fell, a cold body when Tony most needed him and he too was nothing more than a nuisance to the titan that had led them here.

“So tell me Thanos, what has this desperate man left to cling to his life?” Tony shouted hysterically, his words making him still.

“Nothing.”

“Exactly, you idiotic purple thumb of death. Eat your own medicine.”

And Tony shoved his hand into the too big gauntlet,  the stones already obeying as the reality stone forged the gauntlet anew around his hand, smaller and more like the Iron Man gauntlet. He felt the stones rip into him, picking his already broken mind apart and forcing him to cry out in overwhelming pain.

‘ _ Pay the price’ _ Something whispered and Tony gave in, he had nothing left after all, even his planet would be gone soon.

_ ‘Nothing to lose. Take it.’ _

_ ‘Very well.’ _

More searing hot pain entered him, he spat out the blood that piled in his mouth and glanced a last time up to Thanos, his gauntlet rising mockingly with thumb and middle finger hovering over each other.

 

And then…

 

_ Snap _

 


End file.
